Appeasing a Demon
by Kinjiru
Summary: Gaara's stuck doing paperwork and Shukaku is anything but happy about it. Inspired by the idea of bijuu's needing constant attention. One-shot.


Shukaku was bored.

Gaara was doing paperwork.

The tailed beast was just about ready to die because of this excruciating situation. After all, he was stuck inside an emotionally (not to mention vertically) stunted brat who himself was stuck with a job he was far too young to have for its being the most boring and most time-consuming thing in the world.

Paperwork.

He yawned at the scorn Lady Fate had put upon him. Freaking witch. She was just as bad as his host body's mother had been. Of course he didn't let Gaara hear that part. Living inside someone some one and a half decade you'd think you'd learn a thing or two. But that didn't really matter right now.

Shukaku was bored. And Suna's economic and political status didn't interest him.

"Hey kid," he interrupted Gaara's line of thought. "I want ice cream."

Okay, maybe not the best idea he could come up with, but at such short notice, it would suffice. Anyway, it would be interesting to see how Gaara would respond to it. The fifteen-year-old Kazekage finished the page before answering him.

"We live in a desert, Shukaku. We don't have ice cream."

No turning back now.

"But I want ice cream."

Gaara almost rolled his eyes.

"No," he said, reading on to next page.

It said something about a bunch of D-Class missions some genin brats managed to mess up. Shukaku scoffed, not too pleased that he was being ignored and thought of a new way to provoke his host body.

"Konoha has ice cream," he decided to say.

"So?"

"You could send for some. Let Kyuubi's boy do it. You haven't seen him in a while."

Again, "So?"

The tanuki resisted a whining screech. Teenagers.

This moment of defeated silence seemed to have reinforced the kage's cool. He reached across the table for the next scrolls of mission reports. Shukaku growled and let out the most high-pitched shriek he could muster. Pathetically or not, he was intent on not having the kid get the last laugh. Not once in fifteen years had that scream failed him.

Gaara's fingers twitched an inch away from the pile of scrolls on the table.

"Ice cream…" the redhead started, trying to compose himself. "Is a luxury Suna can live without."

"You seriously want me to _make _you fetch me ice cream?"

"You don't even eat."

"I do too eat. I eat what you eat. And I wanna eat ice cream. NOW!"

The redhead winced. Shukaku was intent of having his way, no matter how ridiculous his request was. Any method would suffice, as long as he could get out of the rut called boredom. And his host body knew this all too well. But sometimes, the kid was stupid enough to make use of his stubbornness.

"I said no," he replied, raising his monotone of a voice. "And if I don't finish this work today, you're never going to get your ice cream."

Silence. Gaara was about to heave a sigh of relief when something clicked in the mind of the demon that plagued his life.

"So you'll get the ice cream when you're done?"

Shukaku's grin couldn't get any wider. All the color (at least what was left of it in the first place) left the kazekage's face.

"You said it yourself, kid. No ice cream till you finish."

Gaara swallowed hard, and Shukaku snickered at the disarray the redhead's thoughts had been plunged into as he tried to compose a good comeback.

"Don't twist my words–"

Around. The boy would have said if the tanuki had given him the chance. But no, Shukaku knew all too well that he had won this round.

"Then stop talking and start working brat!" he shrieked with a great cackle. "Work! Work! Work! Work! Work!"

Gaara grabbed two fistfuls of hair and banged his head on the table, nearly in tears. Shukaku merely laughed, continuing with his chanting. After all, results were what he needed.

He found a way out of his boredom. Gaara was going to finish his paperwork. And he was going to get his ice cream. (Gaara was going to thank him for that later, he was sure.) Whoever said wishes couldn't be flexible?


End file.
